I know how you feel - most forums are so hard to take because of the people who have no clue, but think they know what's going on.
A lot of people seem to think Google discontinued XMPP because they didn't like people using it for free, but I wonder about that; it doesn't really fit the way I think of Google's business methods. I'm guessing Google doesn't even care about something like that, and they market products according to their long range goals, not in reaction to some usage pattern by one group. But whatever their reasons, I can't see people getting so bent out of shape because they're losing something they never paid for, and probably were not willing to pay for.